02 July 2009

In 1985, the final iteration of Super Friends aired, dropping "Friends" from the title completely. The team consisted of Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, a one time Flash and El Dorado cameos, the return of teen Firestorm, and the debut of new teen sensation, and focal character Cyborg (more prominently featured in the Teen Titans animated series).

Also notable in the season were the first and only appearances by The Joker and The Penguin as well as the first ever onscreen depiction of Batman's origin. The season consisted of eight 30-minute episodes (2 of which contained 2 short episodes).

01 July 2009

Diabolical Scheme: Nuada, Prince of the Elves wants to reunite pieces of an ancient crown which will enable him to command an unstoppable army of mechanical soldiers.

Coolest Moment(s): Those pesky tooth fairies, the trip to the troll market (being the best example of incredible effects) and the fight with the golden army.

Worst Moment: Abe's infatuation with Wonder Twin B. C'mon Abe, you can do better.Comic Book Logic: How are Hellboy and Liz genetically compatible. The thought of their conceiving a baby is pretty revolting.

Opening Weekend: $34,539,115

Total Domestic Box Office: $75,986,503

Review in 50 Words or Less: Incredibly underrated. You never thought a group of such strange looking oddballs could ever be accused of character development Creative and formidable monsters, top notch effects, and a story balancing equal parts action and heart propel these freakish heroes into a rare sequel which far outshines the original.

30 June 2009

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen opened last week and made a serious run for the biggest 5-day opening record currently held by The Dark Knight. When the dust settled, the giant robots mustered $200.1 million, just shy of Batman's $203.8 million record (in actuality, the film earned something like $198.3 million, but the studio fudged their numbers to make it look like they eked out $200 mil, oh the games they play with numbers) . The weekend take included a $60.6 million opening day, also falling short of The Dark Knight's $67 million record. Considering the great buzz built up by Batman and the toxic reviews for Transformers, it seems like TF2 is likely to fall short of last years biggest film total as well. Though the $400+ million the movie does take in will probably be plenty to make all involved quite happy. Perhaps the Man of Iron will give The Dark Knight's opening a run for its money come 2010.

Meanwhile, Wolverine has reached a nearly $178 million cume, good enough for 6th place for the year so far. The total looks like it will also be enough to hold off Night at the Museum 2, giving the X-Man Fox's biggest hit of the summer - a fact that may help to green light future X-Films for the struggling studio.

In non-heroic box office news, Up hit $250 million and wrangled the #1 spot away from Star Trek (currently at $246 million), which it will hold for a couple of days until it inevitably gets eclipsed by Transformers. Up will wind up as the #2 biggest Pixar film to date and looks to land somewhere around $290 million.